Everything worked out quite well after that. Since nobody was hungry anymore, we could go into the apples right away and today, we decided to split up so that we could cover a bigger area, Jongup in one corner, Daehyun on the opposite side and so on. It became a little bit boring, but the way I worked, I would sooner or later bump into one of the other boys; Sohee was somewhere near the house so that she could help with the food later.

That girl surprised me over and over again, she was very fierce when she said that she wanted to help today too and grandma nodded in satisfaction. I hoped that she didn't behave that way when she came home, because her parents would think that she underwent some kind of weird brain-wash... However, time passed by rather quickly, because I was listening to music through my phone and could sing along.

Then, when I climbed up the wooden ladder once more to reach for the higher apples, a raindrop landed right on my nose. I squinted at it in surprise before raising my head towards the sky. When had it become gray? Told you it was going to rain, Zelo's voice said in my head as more raindrops were to follow. “Ah, never mind, it's just a bit of rain”, I mumbled, looking at my phone to check the time. Eleven o'clock. “I'll work for twenty minutes and then gather the others to have a break.”

Thus, I kept picking fruits for a little longer. I got down from the ladder, almost slipping, because the water had made the wood become slippery, but I managed to stabilize myself by grabbing a branch and got down safely. “Dae-oppa?”, I shouted, walking through the rain. I was completely drenched, but I didn't actually care. I loved rain. It had rained on the day of my birth – Himchan had often told me that and he thought that this explained my love for rain, but I didn't actually care about the reason. “Daehyun?”

“Soora!”, a loud voice sounded through the noise of raindrops landing on the trees' leaves and Daehyun stepped down from his ladder. His fringe was adhered to his forehead, almost covering his eyes and I giggled before reaching out with my hand and the curtain out of his face, leaving him in surprise for a second.

“I want you to see where you are going after all”, I explained myself with another smile. “Let's go eat something.”

“Eat...R-Right! I'm very hungry!”, he stuttered, looking as if he had been deep in thoughts for a while. I nudged him with my elbow. “Of course you are. Why do you think I came here before going back on my own?”, laughed I before starting to walk towards the house.

Daehyun followed with a sheepish smile. “To see me, maybe?”

I glanced at him, raising my eyebrow before poking his nose. “You're such a romantic, you know? But no: your looks are just a bonus”, I grinned, nudging him once more and picking up speed to get away from him before he could start poking me.

“At least you didn't say I'm ugly”, I could hear him mumble and when I turned around, a satisfied smile played around the corners of his mouth that turned into a glare. “You'll regret that you poked me this much. But not today... No ice cream for three weeks!”, he stated loudly and my jaw dropped.

“Yah!” I ran up to him again, grabbing his arm. “You can't do this to me! No one makes better ice cream! Dae-oppa!” He snorted, averting his gaze while rubbing the back of his head and freeing his arm from my grasp. Then, his finger poked my side when I didn't expect it and I let out a yelp of surprise before tumbling against a nearby tree, making my opponent laugh out loud. His laugh was so cute.

“Okay, no ban, but I'm granted one wish instead, got it?” I nodded furiously. How would I ever be able to give up on ice cream for three whole weeks?! I'd do anything, but that!

“What... is your wish then?”, I asked curiously, but Daehyun shook his head.

“I'll think about it for some time, but I won't forget it, I swear. I'll let you off the hook for today, Kim Soora”, he said with a wink and I sighed in relief. It looked like there weren't any consequences for poking today. I should have thought about it beforehand. Daehyun had the power to control ice cream after all, and thus, he had a lot of power over me. “Now let's go eat.”

I bit my lower lip, walking beside him, careful not to annoy him in any way. I had always been able to tease Jongup without any problems, but it seemed to be different with Daehyun. I had to watch out for his revenge.

When we reached the house, thunder growled on the outside and I texted Zelo and Jongup to meet up and come back for now. I didn't get a reply at first and ran up to the bathroom to grab some towels for us. Sohee had seen us when we got back and was standing in the doorway now, looking crestfallen.

“Soora!” I offered her and Daehyun a towel each. “My hair is ruined”, she whined and sniffed. It looked pathetic, but I managed not to laugh.

“It's okay, it doesn't look that bad”, I mentioned with an encouraging smile when suddenly, someone started rubbing my head with a towel and I squealed until the person stopped for a moment and I recognized him as Daehyun who was looking at me with a smirk.

“And that's how you're making it look better”, he stated, glancing at Sohee who was barely holding back her giggles at my sight. My hair was probably pointing in every direction after that action. I decided to get revenge by ruffling his hair up with my hands, making him look ridiculous when his jaw dropped.

“You mean like this?” A smug grin crept up on my face when Daehyun shook his head like a dog to make his hair fall in place again. Sohee was now laughing aloud and didn't seem too concerned about her looks anymore. Her country-girl-side peeked through the city one and I enjoyed it. Then, suddenly, Daehyun's amused expression turned into a restrained one when our eyes met again. There was definitely something wrong today.

“Oh, kids, you're all wet!”, I heard grandpa's voice behind us and I spun around. “Don't get a cold!”

Grandma examined us carefully. “They are making the floor dirty. Take off your shoes”, she noticed with a smile on her face to weaken her demanding words and we did as she had told us. At least she didn't send us back to work right away. “Where are the other two?”, she asked, but I just shrugged.

“Don't know. I wrote them, but they don't reply...”

“Ah, the stray cat will find back to its food source in the end”, stated grandma and walked into the kitchen. “Sohee-dear, could you help me with the vegetables? Just like yesterday, please.”

“Okay, granny!”, Sohee shouted and ran after her, much to our surprise. Grandpa looked at us before yawning and telling us that he would go to bed for a while to recharge his batteries. Poor old man, he had to endure that creepy, but nice and caring, moody woman every day.

It was only Daehyun and me now and we sat down at the table. I looked at my phone once more. “There's still no reply from Jongup...”, I mumbled in worry. He was always the first to answer me, no matter what. Zelo never replied, that was nothing new.

“Hm.” I glanced up to find Daehyun staring at me. Something was weird about his behavior.

“What's wrong?”, I asked, getting him out of his trance and he shot me a questioning gaze. “You're behaving weird today, are you alright?” I reached out with my hand to touch his forehead. “You don't have a fever, do you?” He flinched, but managed to keep a straight face.

“No, I'm fine”, was all he mumbled before resting his head on his hands. He kept looking at me for a little longer before averting his eyes. “Say, do we have any secrets between each other?”

I frowned, but my mind formed the picture of Zelo lying in the bushes, like on the day I had rescued him, right away. It wasn't a secret that Zelo was a fighter-type, I would tell him if he asked and he had probably figured it out on his own by now anyway. “No, why?”

Another pause. Daehyun then shook his head a little. “It's fine. Sorry for asking...”

“It's not. What's there to be sorry for? Now don't be like that and tell me.” He seemed to quarrel with himself, biting his lower lip until I thought that it could start bleeding at any time.

“It's...euh...Youngjae again... I don't want to bother you with him.” The sound of Sohee cursing could be heard from the kitchen, but I didn't care and kept staring at Daehyun. He sighed when my eyes didn't back down. “He's still with his new friends. The ones I told you about the last time. He doesn't have time for me anymore, ever since I went to the new school, we have been going our own ways... I don't want to lose him like that, you know?”

I nodded. “Why don't you do something together? Next week-end for example? You could talk about what the issue is...”

Daehyun rubbed the back of his neck with another sigh. “It's not that easy... He says that he's busy learning for his entrance exam. He wants to become a police officer, did I tell you that?” I nodded again. Youngjae had wanted to act according to the rules ever since I had met him. I have to be at home at 6 o'clock. I'm not allowed to drink that. I'm sorry, I'm at work, I can't do this or that. That was just Youngjae as I knew him.

“Nobody learns every week-end. Let's do something fun next week, okay? I want to talk to him properly for once, maybe he tells me something. How about that?” Daehyun looked at me as if he weighed my honesty before coming to a decision.

“If you think that it will help...” His tone was hopeless and something else was on his mind, I knew it, which is why I waited for a bit longer. “Soora?”

“Hm?”

“What is Jongup to you?”

I was taken aback, frowning for a second, but I decided to just answer. It seemed to be of importance to Daehyun. “He's someone I can tell everything. He will listen and help me to decide in difficult situations. He is my big brother, just like Himchan, but Jongup is there whenever I need him, while the other one is far away...To sum it all up, he is my best friend.” Daehyun seemed to relax when I said that. “Why?"

He hesitated. “I...I wondered uhm... whether Youngjae and I have that kind of friendship, too. It was like that, some time ago, but now...” He sighed, letting his head fall down to the table with a quiet 'thud'. “I don't know anything anymore.” He reminded me of myself when I was all alone and I reached out with my hand once more, patting his damp hair a little. This time, he didn't flinch.

“You can always come to me, you know? Whatever is bothering you, just tell me, got it?”

He glanced at me with his dark eyes and grinned a bit. “Yeah, I'll do that. Thank you”, he whispered and something in my belly tingled at the sound of his throaty voice. The smell of something cooked reached our noses and his mood brightened up as soon as Sohee entered with a plate full of roasted meat and vegetables. Daehyun tried to be cheerful around everyone, when actually, he was hurt on the inside. I felt bad. I wanted to help him and I'd do anything to see that smile more often and as an honest one.

Daehyun's POV

Of course I had been worrying about Youngjae for a long time now. We had spent out whole childhood together, had known everything about each other, until my father got richer and sent me to an expensive school. I didn't want to go there at first, because it separated me from Youngjae and I was just 'New Money' to everybody there, but then, I met Soora. Youngjae started to go his own way until I didn't even see him unless it was his shift at the coffee shop. And that's where I am today.

But it wasn't him whom I was thinking about the whole day. Well, I felt bad and all, but that wasn't the point. It was Soora.

Of course, it was her thing, but waking up in the morning to find her sleeping right next to me was confusing. It was even worse when I had seen her buried in Jongup's chest, enclosed by his arms. That image had occupied me the whole day while I was picking fruits.

Were the two of them actually a couple? Wouldn't she have mentioned that sooner or later? I had felt my heart sink a bit at that thought. Didn't she trust me? Was I not worth it? Then again, why would she keep stuff like that a secret anyway? And what if I was just imagining all this and she was just so much into skinship? She had told me that she had known Jongup since she was young, just like I knew Youngjae. Was it like that when you were a girl?

There was just too much going on in that dark-blue colored head of mine and I avoided her touch as much as possible to test her reactions. And mine. I didn't like staying away from her. The diagnosis was obvious: Jealousy. No matter what she did, if I wasn't involved, I was worried she would find someone who could take my place as her friend.

Don't be selfish Daehyun, Soora is not like that. I know, I didn't really believe it myself. But seeing her with Jongup made me question my views. Youngjae had replaced me already, what if there was no room for me in Soora's life either? I didn't want to be 'some friend' of hers. I wanted to be someone special. I should risk it soon, I thought over and over again.

“What's wrong?”, she asked me and I snapped out of my thoughts. The fact that she randomly touched my forehead seconds later didn't really help. My thoughts went haywire. Oh , she noticed something. Figure something out, you can do it Daehyun!

“Say, do we have any secrets between each other?” I facepalmed on the inside. What's with that question?! Think of a reason, idiot! I decided to go with the person that occupied my brain beside Soora and tried to explain my behavior with Youngjae. That was no lie, but it wasn't the complete truth either.

The doubt with Jongup remained. I wanted her, I wanted her so much, I wouldn't let him take her. As much as I liked that purple-haired young man, there was some kind of rivalry between us now. My seemingly casual question about Jongup was still quite obvious in my opinion.

Still, Soora didn't seem to notice it and patted my hair in a reassuring manner, which filled me with a tingling warmth. I wanted to take her hand, pull her closer, hug her, run my hand through her hair, but I remained as I was, only sending her a shy smile instead. She wanted me to tell her more about myself, she showed interest, and I was glad. He is my best friend, she had said. That was good. She had kind of friendzoned him with that.

“Yeah, I'll do that. Thank you.” It was one of the most honest 'Thank you's I had uttered for months if not years. I put on a happy face when Sohee brought us a plate full of food and munched my vegetables, hoping that my mind as well as my heart would let me sleep in the evening. I was happy. I really was.

The front door opened when another thunder could be heard outside. “Anyone there?”, I heard the voice of Zelo shout breathlessly. Another rival of mine. Just the fact that he got to live in the same house as Soora made him take that position in my eyes.

“Yes!”, Soora shouted and got up to get the new arrival another towel, but stopped when she saw him completely drenched. Alone. “Where's Jongup?” Zelo took another deep breath as if he had run back to get out of the rain.

“I couldn't find him, I thought he was here already. He's not?” Soora looked back at me and we frowned at each other. Jongup never got lost just like that. Something must have happened.

“We have to search for him”, she stated with wide eyes. Great, now I wouldn't even get to eat the cake her grandma had promised us. Meh.

Okay, some more Daehyun now. I hope I'll be able to make this whole relationship-confusion more clear soon, be patient with me please °^°"